GenZero Reports 47% Rise in Realised Climate Impact as It Sharpens Focus on Commercially Viable Climate Solutions

SINGAPORE, August 4, 2026 – GenZero has reported a 47% year-on-year increase in cumulative direct realised climate impact, as the Temasek-owned decarbonisation investment platform deepens its focus on commercially viable climate solutions across nature, technology and carbon market infrastructure.

In its second Sustainability Report, titled “Steadfast in Shifting Times”, GenZero said its portfolio delivered 4.4 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (MtCO₂e) in cumulative direct realised climate impact on a stake-adjusted basis from calendar year 2022 to 2025. This includes 1.4 MtCO₂e delivered in 2025, with the cumulative figure equivalent to the annual emissions of around one million petrol-powered cars, or about 8% of Singapore’s total annual emissions.

On a combined direct and indirect basis, GenZero said its portfolio delivered 8.3 MtCO₂e of realised climate impact in 2025, with further gains expected as investments scale.

The report marks a significant update on GenZero’s impact journey, following its inaugural Sustainability Report in 2024/2025, which outlined the firm’s disciplined, impact-driven strategy across nature-based solutions, technology-based solutions and carbon ecosystem enablers.

Climate Impact Measurement Moves to the Centre

GenZero’s latest disclosure is notable because it continues to push climate impact measurement beyond high-level commitments and towards realised, stake-adjusted outcomes.

The firm’s second Sustainability Report documents progress across 26 closed investments in 26 countries, expanding its footprint across nature-based solutions, technology-based solutions and carbon ecosystem development.

For climate investors, the distinction matters. Many sustainability reports focus on emissions disclosure, ESG governance and portfolio narratives. GenZero is attempting to quantify the climate impact associated with its investments, while also reporting environmental and social co-benefits.

Among the key outcomes highlighted, land under sustainable management grew to over 900,000 hectares, nearly 13 times the land area of Singapore, up from about 750,000 hectares at the end of 2024. Portfolio emissions transparency also improved, with the share of investees measuring Scope 1 and 2 emissions rising by 35 percentage points to 58% of the portfolio for the financial year ending 31 March 2025. GenZero also reported that more than 2,100 jobs were created across investee companies, under an expanded impact measurement framework that now captures social and environmental co-benefits alongside carbon metrics.

This wider measurement approach reflects the reality that climate investing cannot be evaluated only through avoided or removed emissions. Nature restoration, sustainable land management, jobs, biodiversity, local community outcomes, supply chain resilience and market infrastructure are increasingly part of the climate finance equation.

Principled Pragmatism in a Difficult Climate Finance Environment

GenZero Chief Executive Officer Frederick Teo said the strategic case for climate investing remains valid despite macroeconomic headwinds.

“The strategic imperative underpinning our work remains as valid today as it was when we launched GenZero four years ago,” Teo said. “Despite strong macro headwinds affecting climate action in the past year, extreme weather events, supply chain disruptions and the rise of AI-led energy demand all point to an undeniable fact, the need for cost-effective climate solutions is growing.”

His comments capture one of the most important shifts in the climate finance debate.

Climate action is no longer being discussed only through the lens of corporate net-zero ambition or policy pressure. It is increasingly tied to economic resilience, energy demand, infrastructure stress, supply chain risk and the urgent need for scalable solutions that can work commercially.

Teo framed GenZero’s approach as one of discipline rather than ideology.

“Climate action does not require dogmatic adherence to an ideological agenda,” he said. “Rather, we need to engage in principled pragmatism, a willingness to back commercially-viable solutions that can deliver some climate impact even if they are imperfect.”

For CarbonWire readers, this is the key theme in the report. GenZero is positioning itself around measurable climate outcomes, but also around the hard practical question of what can scale in the real economy.

Nature-Based Solutions Continue to Scale

Nature-based solutions remain an important pillar in GenZero’s approach. The report highlights The Reforestation Fund, GenZero’s first investment in Brazil, which targets conservation, restoration and reforestation of 270,000 hectares of degraded land across Latin America. It also references the Imperative Spekboom Ecosystem Restoration Project, which closed a US$91 million blended finance package comprising a World Bank Outcome Bond and a streaming facility from GenZero and co-investors.

These developments point to a broader trend in climate finance: high-integrity nature projects increasingly need complex financing structures to scale.

Conservation, restoration and ecosystem-based carbon removal can deliver climate, biodiversity and community benefits, but many projects face challenges around upfront capital, long payback periods, carbon credit offtake, monitoring and durability. Blended finance and streaming structures can help bridge that gap.

GenZero’s reported growth in land under sustainable management, now over 900,000 hectares, suggests that nature-based investments remain central to its climate impact strategy.

Technology-Based Solutions Target Hard-to-Abate Sectors

GenZero’s second Sustainability Report also signals a deeper push into technology-based solutions. A key milestone is the firm’s investment in Terra CO2, described as GenZero’s inaugural investment in the built environment sector. Terra CO2’s technology transforms locally abundant, low-cost feedstocks into low-carbon cementitious construction materials, targeting one of the hardest-to-abate industrial sectors.

This is significant because construction materials, especially cement and concrete, remain major sources of industrial emissions. Decarbonising the built environment will require not only energy efficiency and green buildings, but also lower-carbon materials that can be adopted by construction supply chains.

GenZero’s move into low-carbon construction materials reflects the increasing importance of climate technologies that can reduce emissions in sectors where electrification or simple fuel switching is not enough.

The firm’s earlier sustainability report page also highlights its broader technology-based focus, including sustainable fuels, low-carbon materials, carbon capture technologies, energy transition and grid decarbonisation.

Carbon Markets and Sustainable Aviation Fuel

The report also underlines GenZero’s continued role in carbon ecosystem development. During the year, GenZero launched the Action for a Resilient Climate Coalition with partner organisations to mobilise financing towards high-quality climate projects, and joined its steering committee. It also expanded the Green Fuel Forward initiative to 45 participating organisations, growing voluntary demand for sustainable aviation fuel certificates across Asia Pacific.

This focus is especially relevant to the aviation sector, where sustainable aviation fuel remains one of the most important but also most expensive decarbonisation levers.

By building voluntary demand for SAF certificates, GenZero is attempting to support demand-side aggregation, a critical step in helping the SAF market move towards scale.

The firm also joined the Steering Committee of the ASEAN Common Carbon Framework, contributing to a more unified, transparent and efficient carbon market across the region. In addition, it co-published “Foundations for the Carbon Market” with Eng and Co. LLC and PwC Singapore, in partnership with the Singapore Sustainable Finance Association, calling for greater legal clarity, cross-border harmonisation and decision-useful disclosures to strengthen voluntary carbon markets.

These initiatives point to GenZero’s view that climate finance requires not only capital, but market architecture.

Agriculture, Rice Methane and Carbon Credit Demand

Another notable milestone is The Good Rice Alliance, which secured a long-term offtake agreement with Amazon for over 680,000 tCO₂e of carbon credits derived from methane emission reductions in rice cultivation across India.

This is an important development for agricultural carbon markets. Rice cultivation is a major source of methane emissions, particularly in Asia. Reducing methane from paddy fields can deliver significant climate benefits, but project developers need credible measurement, verification and durable demand from buyers.

A long-term offtake agreement with a large corporate buyer helps address one of the central barriers in carbon markets: demand certainty.

For Asia, this kind of agricultural decarbonisation model could become increasingly relevant as companies look beyond forestry and renewable energy credits towards methane, soil carbon, regenerative agriculture and smallholder-linked carbon projects.

Supporting Asia’s Energy Transition

GenZero also highlighted its position in Seraya Partners Fund I, which supports Asia’s energy transition and sustainable infrastructure development.

This follows GenZero’s broader strategy of investing across decarbonisation pathways that include nature-based solutions, technology-based solutions and carbon ecosystem enablers.

Asia’s energy transition requires large-scale investment in grids, renewable power, storage, low-carbon infrastructure, industrial decarbonisation and transition finance. By taking positions in infrastructure-oriented funds, GenZero is participating in the capital stack needed to move beyond individual projects and support platform-level deployment.

A Broader Definition of Climate Impact

GenZero’s latest Sustainability Report reflects a maturing view of climate impact. The headline figure is the increase in realised emissions impact, but the underlying story is broader. GenZero is reporting on hectares under sustainable management, portfolio emissions transparency, job creation, financing structures, SAF certificate demand, agricultural methane credits, carbon market standards and hard-to-abate technology.

This matters because the climate finance sector is under pressure to show that capital deployment leads to measurable outcomes.

For investors, the report offers a case study in how an investment platform can attempt to connect financial discipline with climate accountability. For policymakers, it points to the importance of legal clarity, carbon market integrity and regional harmonisation. For corporates, it shows that climate solutions need demand signals, offtake agreements and commercially viable pathways.

The central message is pragmatic: the climate transition will not be accelerated by purity tests alone. It will require imperfect but scalable solutions, credible measurement, blended finance, high-integrity carbon markets and capital that is patient enough to help emerging climate solutions mature.

GenZero’s second Sustainability Report suggests that the firm is trying to position itself at that intersection, where decarbonisation, investment discipline and market-building meet.